28 August 2007

Early signs of Autumn

The leaves on a dogwood tree are starting to turn color and a few have even fallen to the ground already:Close-up of leaves on another dogwood (again, note the couple of fallen leaves):Berries forming an a third dogwood:Leaves on a Japanese maple (?) have turned bright red:All these photos were taken at our house today in 32.2°C (89.9°F) weather. Clicking on the images will load much larger versions (2.0-3.4 MB).

If my whole life were condensed to fit in one year, on Saturday (at about 3:15 PM) I would be as old as I actually am right now1. So in some artificial way2 these pictures represent exactly where I am in my life right now (I know—I have too much time and not enough to do).

1 Assuming I live to be 86 years old, which I have some whimsical reason to believe, and that I die smack dab in the middle of that year.2 It would probably be less artificial to use a year that starts and ends of the winter solstice, which case this milestone would have been about 10 days earlier.

Forgive me for not giving you a completely straight-forward answer to your question. I'm trying to maintain anonymity—for several reasons. One, to protect my effectiveness in general service. Two, to protect my privacy from non-alcoholics (I'm pretty sure that anything I'd blog about I would be willing to share with the vast majority of people in the rooms of A.A.) I will go so far as to say I live in the suburbs of a mid-Atlantic metropolitan area.

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About Me

Contact me—via either e-mail or Gmail chat—at namenlosen dot trinker at gmail dot com (replace ' dot ' with '.' and ' at ' with '@'). What I show as my birthday on my profile is actually my sobriety date.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed are my own and not those of anyone else (though they should be). Absolutely nothing contained herein is intended or should be construed as being affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous or as being representative of the opinion of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Dramatis personae

• A Zany Billiard — Sister-in-law, married to BassMan I

• Abbott — The Rock's first sponsor

• AdenineLush — Current Area Delegate

• Alf — Step-son

• Amadeus — Brother-in-law

• Banner Sky — Not a person; a nearby bar I never drank in, though I'm not sure why—it was just my kind of cheap dive

• BassMan I — Brother

• Bear — Former DCM who unexpectedly died in Feb 2007

• Bitter Cookie — Ex-wife

• Bumblebee — a sponsee, now deceased as a result of his alcoholism

• Calked Marlin — Garden-variety drunk

• ChinBeard — an old A.A. friend

• Cumulonimbus — Close personal friend and former drinking buddy who spent four years in A.A.

• Dad — My father

• Dancing Bear — Long-time pigeon

• Deadbeat Dad — Wife's ex-husband, who at one time really was one of the biggest child support deadbeats in the state

• Dean-o — Brother-in-law, married to Sis

• Diego — One of Dancing Bear's sponsees

• Doppelganger — Brother

• Ferdinand — Brother

• Graven Latte — A very close friend and recovering alcoholic in general service

• HennaLoge — Sister-in-law, married to Doppelganger

• Idlerich — Ex-wife’s boyfriend and now husband

• J.J. Rangstorm —My first service sponsor, though I didn't know that's what he was at the time

• LaTroy — Step-daughter

• Lloyd Right — a double-trouble sponsee, now deceased

• Luigi — another recovering alcoholic

• Macron Larks — My [non-alcoholic] therapist

• Mobs Sissy — Step-daughter

• Mom — My mother

• Mr Riches-to-Rags — one of my newer pigeons

• Ms Sobriety — Long-time sober friend & high school sweetheart

• Nimue — Wife (soon to be ex-wife)

• Nonces Juicy — First cousin and wife to Cumulonimbus

• OneEighty — Sister-in-law, married to Ferdinand

• Overseer — Temporary pigeon as of October 2007

• Painter — Daughter

• Placido — Brother

• Ralph — My second sponsor

• Revson — Son-in-law, married to S-Cat, , father of my four grandchildren

• Rock, The — Current sponsor

• S-Cat — Daughter, married to Revson, mother of my four grandchildren